A fire swept through this mobile home in East Hartsville, S.C., April 24, 2013. / Wayne Bird, @WayneBird1, Twitter

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Four children have died in a fire that swept through a mobile home Wednesday near the South Carolina city of Hartsville, their bodies discovered by firefighters shortly after they put out the flames, an official said.

Russell Cox, a spokesman for the city of Hartsville, said firefighters took about 10 minutes to extinguish the fire and then found the victims in the charred interior of the home. The ages and identities of the victims were not immediately released by a local coroner, Cox added.

"There is a whole lot of crying here. It's an emotional scene," Cox told The Associated Press without elaborating.

A photograph tweeted by the Darlington County sheriff's office showed the charred interior of the mobile home while the outside appeared to be relatively undamaged. A tricycle and another children's toy could be seen in the yard. Smoke could be seen still wafting from an open front door where fire hoses snaked through the opening.

The fire broke out on a street lined with mobile homes near Hartsville, a city of about 8,000 people about 60 miles east of the state capital of Columbia.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.